The rotating service structure at Launch Pad 39A was moved into place over space shuttle Discovery as launch preparations move ahead for STS-133 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The enclosed gantry-like structure, called the RSS, is full of work platforms and even a clean room that allows workers to transfer space station modules and other payloads into the shuttle’s cargo bay without contaminating them. The RSS also protects the orbiter while it is out at the pad and includes several metal panels that cover critical portions of the spacecraft’s underbelly before launch.<\/p>\n
Teams will also test the flight readiness of Discovery’s three main engines today. Liftoff is targeted for Nov. 1 at 4:40 p.m. EDT on Discovery’s last mission, a flight to the International Space Station.<\/p>\n
The astronauts of Discovery will wrap up a two-day integrated simulation of orbital operations ath their training base at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The rotating service structure at Launch Pad 39A was moved into place over space shuttle Discovery as launch preparations move ahead for STS-133 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The enclosed gantry-like structure, called the RSS, is full of work platforms and even a clean room that allows workers to transfer space station modules and other payloads into the shuttle’s cargo bay without contaminating them. The RSS also protects the orbiter while it is out at the pad and includes several metal panels that cover critical portions of the spacecraft’s underbelly before launch.<\/p>\n
Teams will also test the flight readiness of Discovery’s three main engines today. Liftoff is targeted for Nov. 1 at 4:40 p.m. EDT on Discovery’s last mission, a flight to the International Space Station.<\/p>\n
The astronauts of Discovery will wrap up a two-day integrated simulation of orbital operations ath their training base at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":612598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shuttle-update"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/612598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}